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Normal and efficient deindustrialisation or undesirable deindustrialisation?

- "Within a currency area, countries (regions) specialise in terms of production as they make use of their comparative advantages. The deindustrialisation of some countries is therefore perfectly normal and efficient in terms of wellbeing if it actually corresponds to comparative advantages leading them to become service economies."
- "By contrast, other countries may deindustrialise "by mistake", because of poor economic policies (labour market rules, taxes, ill-adapted corporate financing, loss of cost-competitiveness), while they ought to remain industrial given the education of the labour force, the investment and R&D drive, etc."
- "It is very important to draw a distinction between these two types of countries, to ascertain where reindustrialisation (and what it entails: control of wage costs, productive investment drive, government aid, cuts in payroll taxes) makes sense. We study euro-zone countries from this viewpoint. We show that deindustrialisation is "excessive" in France, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Finland; that it is "normal" in Greece and Ireland; and that it is low in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Portugal."
Natixis Flash Economics 340 20100701

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